Blank for making letters and numbers



Sept. 30, 1.941. l A. w. sMlTH- 2,257,200

BLANK FOR MAKNG LETTERS AND NUMBERS Filed May 7, 1940 Eu/enor Patented Sept. 30, 1941 BLANK FOR MAKING LETTERS AN NUlVIBERS Alfred W. Smith, San Francisco, Calif., assigner to Dennison Manufacturing Company, Framingham, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Applicansn May 7,1940, serial No. 333,333

(c1. 3ra- 25) 2 Claims.

For many purposes it is often desirable to have cut-out letters or numbers well proportioned and uniform in size and shape. Consequently it has long been commercial practice to make and sell cut-out characters of various sizes and styles for use in making signs, labeling articles, etc. However, the necessity of providing twenty-six dierent Roman capital letters and ten different figures, a total of thirty-six characters, for each different size and style of lettering, has made this prior practice impractical.

Objects of the present invention are to provide a blank from which any one of the above mentioned letters and digits may be formed merely by removing parts of the blank, whereby dealers need carry in stock only one item for each line of letters and numbers. Thus instead of requiring thirty-six items for one line of lettering, the present invention permits thirty-six items to represent thirty-six characters. Such blanks may come in sets, one set diiering from another in size, shape, material, coloring, etc.

According to the present invention each blank comprises an oblong piece of sheet material having an opening in each end with a bar therebetween. The width of the bar should be approximately equal to the width of the margin of the blank at each end thereof and preferably the width of the bar and the width of each of the three margins of the blank on the other three sides of each opening are approximately equal to each other. The blanks may be formed in individual pieces or they may be in strip form, either in the form of a ribbon one blank wide or a sheet having a width equal to a plurality of blanks. When in strip form the strip may be provided with perforatons or other form of weakened lines between blanks.

Blanks may be formed of any suitable material such as thin flexible materials like paper, foil and Celluloid, or thick stiff material like cardboard, Masonite, metal and wood. The front surfaces of the blanks may be finished as desired and either the front or the rear surfaces may be coated with any suitable adhesive such as dry gumming or pressure-sensitive adhesive. The blanks may also be made in the form of decalcomanias. A few of the various uses of the blanks are to form letters for show cards, large and small outdoor and indoor signs, boat names and theatre signs.

For the purpose of illustration typical embodiments are shown in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a face View of an individual blank;

Fig. 2 is aperspective view of a stripof blanks;

and 1 Fig. 3 comprises a few typical letters and numbers made from the blank shown in Fig. 1.

The particular embodiment of the invention shown in Fig. 1 comprises an oblong piece of material divisible into fifteen squares including four corner squares l, a center square 2, two mid-side squares 3 at opposite sides of the center square, two end-center squares 4 at opposite ends of the center square, two mid-end squares 5 between the corner squares, and four side squares 6 between the corner squares and the mid-side squares. The end-center squares 4 are removed to form openings through the blank and the other squares may be provided with some or all of the ylines indicated by broken lines in Fig. l, these lines preferably being on the back of the blank so as not to show from the front after the blank has been converted into a letter or number. Thus the corner squares I have diagonal bisectors 'I dividing the squares into inner and outer triangles 8 and 9. The mid-side squares have diagonal bisectors l0 and Il dividing the squares into four triangles l2, i3, I4 and l5, the side squares have bisectors I6 approximately parallel to their upper and lower sides and bisectors l1 approximately parallel to their vertical sides, and the mid-end squares 5 have bisectors I8 approximately parallel to the upper and lower sides. By making the length and width of the blank in the ratio of 5 to 3 the fifteen sections of the blank may be made square as above described. However it will of course be understood that some or all of the sections may be oblong. Thus in Fig. 2 the openings of the longitudinal central row are oblong in outline, with their long dimensions extending crosswise of the blank, and the ten marginal sections of each blank are square in outline. As indicated by the dotted lines I9 the individual blanks of the strip 20 are defined from each other by transverse rows of perforations.

In the examples shown in Fig. 3 the lines along which the blanks have been out to form the letters and digits are designated by the same numerals as in Fig. l. In forming the letter A for example, the two upper corner triangles 9 are cut off along the lines 1 and the lower square 5 is completely removed. In forming the letter C the center-square is removed, all four of the corner triangles 9 are removed and all of the right hand side of the blank is removed between the two horizontal lines I6.

It should be understood that the present disi as lines 1, l0, Il, I 6, I1 and i8, the various areas of the blank may be embossed withparallel lines, the lines running in diierent `directions in the different areas to distinguish the areas from each other as in cross-hatching a drawing.

I claim:

1. An approximately rectangular blank for usev in making various characters comprising fifteen approximately rectangular sections including four corner sections, a center section, two mid-side sections at opposite sides of said center 4section, two end-center sections at opposite ends of said center section, two mid-end sections between said corner sections, and four side sections `between said corner sections and said mid-side sections, said vzend-centen sections being removed to :form approximately rectangular openings throughf` the blank, said corner Ysections each having diagonal linesdividing the sections into innerand outer parts, said mid-side sections each having diagonal lines dividing the sections into four parts.

2. A blank for use in making various characters comprising an approximately rectangular sheet whose length and width are in approximately the ratio of 5 to 3 so that the blank may be divided into fifteen approximate squares nv cluding four corner squares, a center square, two mid-side squares at opposite sides of said center square, two end-center squares at opposite ends of said center square, two mid-end squares between said vcorner squares, and four side squares angles, and said side squares having bisectors approximately parallelnto opposite sid-es ofV the squares. Y Y i ALFRED W. SMITH. *Y 

